Kitchen hacks you’ll wish you knew sooner

These quick and clever kitchen hacks will change how you cook for the better.

To keep cookies and other baked goods soft after baking, add a slice of store-bought white bread to an airtight container. Your cakes, cookies, and muffins will keep their day-one softness. Friends and family will think they’re fresh!

Craving those scratch-made potato wedges from your favorite restaurant? The answer is waiting in your kitchen drawer. Cut one end of the potato for stability then push an apple slicer through. Add your fave seasonings. Bonus: You can try it with sweet potatoes, too.

Want garden-fresh flavour year-round? Freeze farmers market vegetables in resealable bags during peak season. A classic soup starter called a mirepoix is made by combining 2/3 onion with 1/3 carrot and celery. This aromatic blend will give you a sweet, hearty flavour to kickstart soups and broths. Vegetables will last eight to 12 months so you can enjoy the tastes of summer when gloomy, cold weather hits.

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Sheet pans: They’re not just for dinner anymore! Use your trusty baking sheet to stay organised while you meal prep. Keeping ingredients in one place helps you stay efficient and expedites cleanup, too.

Become an upcycling master! Egg cartons are ideal for freezing small portions of homemade sauce. (Especially when you need to use your ice trays for, well, ice.) Cover and freeze leftover sauce and transfer cubes to a resealable freezer bag. To use, thaw cubes in your fridge for two hours.

Have a group coming over but only one bottle of rosé in the fridge? Offer up some variety by turning wine into a fun, fizzy spritzer cocktail. Simply pour wine over ice and top with sparkling water. Red and white wine work well. Add fresh fruit as a garnish if you’re feeling fancy.

Need an extra hand? Professional chefs will tell you that a damp dishtowel under your mixing bowl will keep it from slipping and sliding on your counter as you mix. This tip works well with a cutting board too.

Fact: No one likes lukewarm bubbly. Find a tall pitcher about the height of your wine bottle and get cooling. Immerse the bottle in ice water with a small handful of salt and turn every few minutes or so. Your booze will chill in 20 minutes (or less!).

Bubble wrap is a powerful insulator. While on the road, keep your ice cream from melting by wrapping the pint in plastic bubble wrap. It’ll stay firm for hours.

Grated cheese really makes a difference (here’s why!) but it can be a pain to prep. For easy cleanup, use a quick spritz of cooking spray on your cheese grater to keep the cheese from sticking.

Check out these brilliant kitchen shortcuts you’ll wish you knew sooner.

Dip the blade of your sharp knife in hot water to heat it up. Then wipe with a dry towel and cut your cake or cheesecake into nice, tidy slices. Repeat each time for pretty slices with a clean edge.

A well-organised kitchen is a joy to use. Install inexpensive hooks on the inside of your kitchen cabinets to maximise your storage space. Soon potholders, measuring spoons and extra gadgets will find a home!

Next time you need fresh lemon juice, try this restaurant tip. Microwave a lemon for seven to ten seconds. Then, roll the lemon back and forth under your palm on the counter. When you squeeze, you’ll get more juice from the lemon with way less effort. Try it with limes, too!

Discover the zero-waste tricks your grandmother has been using for years. 

Insert a drinking straw (or stainless steel reusable) into the tip of the berry and push it through to the other end to quickly remove the stem.

Here are 20 things you’re doing in the kitchen that professional chefs wouldn’t.

Carrots take away the acidity in tomato sauce by adding a subtle sweetness. If you find your sauce has gotten too acidic, peel a whole carrot, simmer it with the sauce and remove before serving.

Here are more nearly-forgotten kitchen tips from the past.

Shredding chicken can be a fiddly task for even the most dexterous cooks. It might even deter you from cooking meals that require it. But did you know you can make fast work of shredding chicken with your stand mixer’s paddle attachment? Simply add your leftover chicken and give it a spin.

Cooking fish in parchment is a healthy, mess-free technique that seals in flavour. As you bake the packet, the fish is delicately infused with whatever ingredients you add in.

When you are finished grating fresh ginger, freeze the leftover root in a plastic container or resealable bag. No more shrivelled ginger in the produce drawer!

Nothing is worse than buying fresh herbs and seeing them wilt the next day. Keep herbs like parsley and coriander bright with this simple storage tip! Trim the stems and place them in a small glass of water. Then place a plastic bag (like the one you got at the grocer) over top and secure by tying the plastic in a knot or wrapping it with butcher’s string. Store in the fridge or on the counter for up to two weeks!

Learn more about how to store fresh food so it lasts longer. 

The wheel of a pizza cutter is perfect for cutting herbs in all directions. Bunch them up and wheel back and forth until you’ve reached your desired consistency.

Making vegetable broth is as easy as cook, strain and serve. Broth can be covered and refrigerated up to three days or frozen up to six months. Use it in soups or casseroles, rice dishes and other recipes that require broth.

Next time you oversalt a soup, toss in a few wedges of raw apple or potato. Simmer for ten minutes and discard the wedges to get the flavour back to normal.

Here are a few more tips for rescuing salty dishes and fixing other common cooking disasters.

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Source: RD.com